Squadron of Nexus Guardians: Unity
by CV12Hornet
Summary: The Staff of Solomon, a Relic of tremendous danger, has been stolen from Section 2 by a mysterious magical girl. Short Tsubasa, somehow turned to the other side, Section 2 must look outside its Symphogear wielders to solve this incident, and get the Staff back.
1. Gathering 11

**Gathering 1.1**

Kazanari Genjuro stared up at the workers suspended on scaffolding over the ruins of Kadingir, slowly removing chunks of the walls, and let out a soft sigh through his nose. Even now, knowing who she was and what the construct was for - the aching throb in his gut didn't let him forget - seeing Ryoko's work dismantled pained him. It was brilliant work, regardless of the fact that it had been intended to blow up the moon, and-

Genjuro shook his head. No rationalizing this feeling. It was an irrational feeling, this pained possessiveness, but humans weren't supposed to be rational, no matter how much his father said otherwise. Or Tsubasa tried. Irrational feelings were to be identified and monitored, not buried.

As if the thought were a summons, crunching rubble heralded Tsubasa taking her place next to him. "Commander," she said, nodding her head politely.

"Tsubasa," he replied back.

"So, they've found the Staff of Solomon, then?" she asked.

Genjuro nodded, turning his gaze towards a trio of men untangling a pile of rubble. Tsubasa took in the scene, expression unreadable, even when one of the men accidentally dropped a chunk on another man's foot. She did raise an eyebrow at some of the swearing that resulted.

"I'm surprised it survived."

He'd been surprised, too; Durandal had been thoroughly wrecked by the attack that had defeated Ryo- Fine, and Nehushtan had crumbled with her body. The Staff, though, had by all their readings come out intact, and might even still be functional. Hence why Tsubasa was here, in case it was accidentally activated.

The two stood in silence as the men continued to slowly uncover the staff, and Genjuro took the opportunity to study his niece's body language. The tension that had held her ever since Kanade's death had… eased. It wasn't gone, and would probably never be gone, but… Genjuro mentally smiled. Hibiki and Chris were good for her, in their own unique ways, as was getting some closure on Kanade's death. Of course, that brought his thoughts back to Ryoko, and Fine, and the inescapable conclusion that she was responsible for the Noise attack that had killed Kanade in the first place. Another small sigh escaped him, drawing a look from Tsubasa. When he didn't do anything else, though, she went back to watching.

Finally, some minutes later, the last piece of rubble was shoved aside and one of the men triumphantly held the Staff of Solomon aloft, not a scratch visible upon it. Both and Tsubasa relaxed fractionally at the lack of Noise, but remained on guard. The Staff could still activate, after all.

So of course, what happened next came from a _completely_ unexpected angle.

With a low blooping sound, someone with a thing for black and yellow popped out of a _crack_ high up in what was left of Kadingir's facade. With Tsubasa and Genjuro focused on the ground, neither noticed for a few crucial seconds. The workers up on the walls _did,_ and they took one look at the situation and began scrambling to get _out._

The newcomer only came to their attention when they sprouted cables that buried themselves in the walls. Now anchored, the newcomer hung in the air for a brief moment and then shot down to the ground propelled by a puff of gas. A massive cloud of dust, thrown up on impact, was the first clue Tsubasa and Genjuro had that someone had joined them, and with the dust obscuring everything Genjuro could only stand back and wait for it to clear, Tsubasa taking the opportunity to activate her Symphogear.

When the dust cleared, the newcomer was revealed to be a young girl with blonde hair streaked with sea green. To Genjuro's dismay, she couldn't be more than fourteen, wore a cocky grin that felt at least partially affected, and retracting into holsters slung across her lower back were the cables that had held her aloft. Her outfit - a black, sleeveless jacket with a yellow lining and a brilliant green gem at the throat over what appeared to be a black leotard - was noted and dismissed for its dissimilarity to Symphogear armor.

Oh, and she was examining the Staff of Solomon in one hand, the workers unconscious around her - or dead. "Well, it _looks_ like what she described…" he just barely heard.

Beside him, Tsubasa drew her sword and pointed at the newcomer, expression hard and flinty. "Who are you?" she icily demanded. "And what do you want with the Staff of Solomon?"

The cocky grin somehow got even wider, and the girl casually crossed her arms behind her head and leaned back on her heels. This also, notably, placed the staff even further away from Tsubasa. "Lotta questions there, Blue," she said. "Tell you what. Beat me first, and maybe I'll tell you."

Tsubasa's eyes narrowed at the invitation, and, switching her sword to an overhead grip, she darted forward. Immediately, the other girl's hands shot to the holsters at her back, the chords flying out into the wall again and pulling her up, leaving Tsubasa impotently glaring at her on the ground.

"Come on! It can't be _this_ easy to leave you helpless!" the new girl taunted.

Tsubasa answered that with a Blue Flash that was easily dodged.

Back on the sidelines, Genjuro clenched his fists. As much as he wanted to jump into the fight, he could see the tactical possibilities of that cable system and knew he'd be even more handicapped than Tsubasa. And, as another throb from his wound reminded, he was still in no shape for a fight of this level. Very well. If Tsubasa failed, he would step in as a last resort. But only then. No matter how much it galled him to wait.

Around him, the ruins of Kadingir began to hum.

Back to the fight. The blonde girl seemed content to just continually re-anchor herself, outmaneuver Tsubasa's attempts to get at her, and throw taunts, which was a good strategy to create an opening to either try and get away or end the fight in a hurry. That his niece had a temper under her cold facade only made it more effective. But to his eye, the blonde girl wasn't trying for _either_ outcome. She was very deliberately staying just out of reach of Tsubasa's blades, not even attacking. So what _was_ she trying to do?

Finally, Tsubasa, having run through her arsenal of ranged attacks and even more attempts to just jump up to no avail, called up the flames of her Soaring Phoenix Slash, rocketing toward the blond girl. In a move that in any other time Genjuro would have been impressed by, once Tsubasa closed the distance the blonde suddenly detached the chords keeping her aloft, planted a hand on top of her opponent's head, and flipped over her, slipping right between the fiery swords. He did not miss the hand she planted on Tsubasa's back.

No follow-up attack came, and when the two touched the ground, Tsubasa sheathed her sword and walked up to take her place next to the blonde girl, confirming his worst fears.

Around him, the ruins of Kadingir began to vibrate.

"Whew!" the blonde girl said, wiping some sweat from her forehead. " _That_ was close. Thank Go-" She stopped, as if suddenly realizing that Genjuro was still present, and shook her head, turning to walk away. "Right, never mind. C'mon, Blue Girl, let's get-"

"What do you intend to do with the Staff of Solomon?" Genjuro interrupted.

The girl paused, and turned around, giving him a searching look. "What's it to you, old man?"

His eyes narrowed. "It is a tool of destruction and death. And if you intend to use it, instead of lock it away-" He raised his fists, sliding into a ready stance. "Then I _will_ stop you."

Not really - the girl alone, he could have beaten, but her _and_ Tsubasa? In his condition, he knew he stood no chance.

Still, when the blonde turned around and regarded him, hands going for her holsters, he thought his hasty plan might actually work.

"Yayaka, Commander Kazanari is stalling," Tsubasa cut in, and Genjuro fought back a curse. "Our battle, and possibly your arrival, has destabilized Kadingir. What energy is left is going to be released soon."

"Big boom, right?" the girl - Yayaka - said questioningly. A nod from Tsubasa. "Right, well, nothing for it." Reaching into a pocket on the coat, she drew out a small, many-sided gem, and threw it on the ground, spawning a round portal with the same blooping sound that had accompanied her arrival. "Later, old man. Maybe we will get to fight." And with that, she and Tsubasa hopped in, the portal closing behind them before he could take more than a step.

This time, Genjuro indulged in a single, spat curse, before scanning the cracked tower. The workers on the walls had sensibly long since evacuated, which just left the trio Yayaka had left unconscious. Sprinting over, he checked their vitals - alive, thank God - and then threw up an arm as, with a crackling roar, explosions blossomed all along Kadingir and tore it apart.

Outside, Aoi and Sakuya had been getting the situation from the evacuated workers when dust bloomed at random around Kadingir, followed by the tower collapsing in on itself. The two gaped at the sight, and then, shortly after the roar of the collapse went silent, exchanged a glance and sprinted for the rubble.

"Commander!" Sakuya called out when they reached the edge of the rubble pile. For a moment, nothing happened, and then a tanned fist punch clean through a large slab. The rest of Genjuro followed shortly after, his clothes torn and covered in dust and three unconscious men slung under his arms and over one shoulder. No blood dripped out from under his shirt, to their relief.

Immediately, Sakuya scrambled up the pile to take one of them, Aoi dialing a number in her Section 2-issued cell phone.

"Hello? Yes, we need a medic at the Kadingir ruins. There's-"

"Mild physical trauma, three unconscious," Genjuro interrupted.

"Three cases of mild physical trauma. They're all unconscious. Yes, we had to move them, unfortunately..."

While Aoi continued to talk to the medics, Genjuro and Sakuya carefully placed the unconscious men on the ground, Genjuro turning to his subordinate.

"Sakuya, contact Hibiki and Chris, explain what's going on and get them to headquarters so they can sortie on short notice," he said.

"Yes, commander," Sakuya nodded. "Though, commander… what _is_ going on?"

Sighing, Genjuro stood, and to Sakuya's shock seemed to age several years. "A new enemy, a young girl, has taken the Staff of Solomon and did… something to Tsubasa. Something that has turned her against us." Reaching up, he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'll send you a full briefing on the situation as soon as I can type it up."

Sakuya, face grim, nodded and walked away to make the necessary call. Once he was out of earshot, Genjuro fished out his own phone and, heedless of the cracked screen, called a specific number.

"Shinji?" he said once it picked up. "I know what her father said, but we're going to need her help. I can feel it."

A pause, and then… " _I'll get her on board, commander."_

 **AN: I've wanted to write a magical girl megacrossover for years now, ever since the Battle Fantasia collaborative fic over on Spacebattles died. Sadly, my own limited anime-watching habits teamed up with a lack of a good plotline to stonewall that desire. Well, that, and the failure of a couple more collaborative efforts that I was actually involved in.  
**

 **But now, both issues have been resolved, and the fic can start! This will be my main writing project for the foreseeable future. And yes, there will be more series crossing over.**


	2. Gathering 12

**Gathering 1.2**

Genjuro eased himself into the chair at the command station of Section 2's new headquarters, wincing slightly damaged muscles twinged. The new headquarters had been only recently completed over a great many strident objections from the bean counters in the Diet. They had considered it redundant with the Lydian HQ being remodelled at considerable expense. Then Fine happened, and they'd been all too eager to get it completed ASAP. Well. "Completed". The internal systems had been extensively tested and by all accounts worked, but the submarine hadn't yet left its finishing dock. A shakedown cruise was the next step, albeit one shortened as much as possible for the new crisis.

Still, as long as all the sensors worked, then they could handle the lack of movement. The Lydian headquarters hadn't moved, either, after all.

"Aoi," Genjuro called out once he was settled. "Any sign of the Staff? Or anything related to Yayaka, her powers, and travel method?"

"I'm afraid not, commander," she replied, shaking her head. "If there's an aufwachen waveform in a 500-mile radius, I'll know, but finding a completed relic without Ryoko to calibrate things…"

An awkward silence descended on the command center, though it was mercifully brief.

"Anyway, with… Yayaka, I wouldn't even know where to begin. What you've described doesn't sound like any sort of Heretical Technology we've encountered. I can tap into the national security network, watch the cameras..."

A weary sigh escaped Genjuro's lips. "I was afraid of that…" he said, even as he nodded assent to the camera-watching plan. Tapping on his console, he queued up the list of potential replacements he could poach from Section One, the research department. It was a long shot - Ryoko had been brilliant beyond all the other researchers - but the hard part, the theoretical work, had been done. If he could find somebody new…

No dice. Profile after profile was swept away, the same researchers aping Ryoko's theories without ever truly understanding. He was beginning to despair of finding anything when an unfamiliar face stared up at him from the last profile.

"Yukishiro Honoka…" he read. He pulled up the profile and began to read, and immediately his eyebrows began climbing for his hairline. Yukishiro was, apparently, an _intern_ hired straight out of college for an excellent paper on some of the underlying principles of Heretical Technology. That paper was linked, and Genjuro pulled it up and began to read.

Naturally, it was very theoretical and heavy on the jargon, but years of working with Ryoko had given Genjuro at least a basic understanding of the theory. Certainly, the paper didn't trip any bullshit alarms. And even working solely off of publicly available information, it was reaching the kind of conclusions _Ryoko_ had once upon a time.

And if Shinji's claims about Takamachi's abilities were correct…

Smiling, Genjuro cleared his screen and began typing up an email.

~o~

On the surface, Nanoha Takamachi was an ordinary, if intelligent and mature, ten-year-old girl. She did well in school, had plenty of friends - and she also knew _magic._ She had fought monsters, people, and ancient artifacts of long-dead civilizations, and somewhat naively, both she and her TSAB handlers had until very recently assumed that the rest of Earth, lacking much magical talent, had simply overlooked the two cases she had participated in.

Right now, she was lying on her stomach on her bed, kicking her feet and texting back and forth with her friend Fate Harlaown about the silly little things elementary schoolers usually texted about.

Then the doorbell rang.

"Nanoha!" her mother Momoka called up, sounding mildly harried. "Could you get the door, please?"

"I will!" Nanoha called back, tapping out a hasty goodbye before she stowed her phone. Padding down the stairs, she opened the door and blinked up at the figure in the door. "Oh, Mr. Ogawa! What are you doing here?"

"Hello, Nanoha. Would you mind getting your father?" Shinji Ogawa said, all smiles. "I'd like to talk to you about… magical business, but I would also very much like to keep all my fingers."

Giggling, Nanoha leaned back and called into the kitchen, "Dad? Mr. Ogawa is here about magic business!"

"I know, give me a couple minutes!" Shiro Takamachi shouted back, followed shortly by a muffled curse.

"Complicated dinner?" Shinji guessed, a sympathetic look on his face.

" _New_ dinner," Nanoha corrected. "And Kyouya isn't here, so that's one less set of hands."

Nodding, Shinji stepped back to wait. Nanoha did the same, though Shinji noted her eyes were rather unfocused. Odd.

In the event, it was only a couple of minutes before a harried Shiro, wearing an apron freshly stained with what appeared to be some sort of sauce, walked up to them. "Ah, Shinji. What brings you here?"

Underneath the stress of the dinner preparations, Shinji could read tense wariness in Shiro's body language. Well, that was consistent with his last visit, and he couldn't blame the man. The last visit had been for information only, and everyone involved understood that any further visits were likely to be about much more serious matters.

"Ah, I'd like to ask for Nanoha's assistance on our latest case," Shinji explained. "As of right now, we're still in the search phase, and Nanoha's abilities would be invaluable on that front. And while I can't guarantee she'll have to fight, I can say she would be our _last_ option."

The tension in Shiro hadn't gone away, but he also hadn't shut the door in Shinji's face. That was a win, as far as the agent was concerned.

"Um, what are you looking for, by the way?" Nanoha jumped in.

"An artifact that summons Noise," Shinji answered after a moment of consideration. "It was stolen from us earlier today."

Something changed in Nanoha's expression at that. What had been the curious look of a normal young girl to the hard, determined look of a veteran… what even was the term here? Regardless, it was an expression he recognized from the many times Tsubasa had worn it. Shiro, too, noticed the change, if his resigned sigh and slumped body language were anything to go by.

"I'm not going to be able to convince you not to say yes, am I," he said more than asked. Nanoha shook her head 'no'. "And you can't call in your… friends?"

"Lindy said they can only interfere if it gets really bad. Like, world-destroying bad!" Nanoha gave Shinji a questioning look. "It's _not_ that bad, right?"

"No. And I hope it doesn't get that bad."

Nanoha nodded. "And Hayate's still recovering so Signum and Vita are hovering over her all the time."

Shiro sighed again. "Fine, you can help." Nanoha sucked in a breath- "But you're going to school tomorrow, Nanoha. We can make excuses for Saturday, but I don't want you missing any more school than you have to."

"Aww!" Nanoha whined, pouting. It was exceptionally cute.

"Don't worry, it's not _that_ urgent," Shinji assured the two. "Tomorrow afternoon is perfectly fine. And now, I think I've kept you away from your dinner preparations long enough. I'll send you the coordinates for our new headquarters, Nanoha, and see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow!" Nanoha cheerfully replied, waving Shinji goodbye as he closed the door. She turned to face her father. "So, any tips for working with Mr. Ogawa and his boss?"

Shiro chuckled and reached down to ruffle his youngest daughter's hair, much to her squawked annoyance. "I'll give you a few pointers over dinner. But I wouldn't worry. I've met Kazanari Genjuro, and word on the street is that he's even more of a big teddy bear in human form than he used to be."

Nanoha hummed thoughtfully. "But, uh, if Genjuro is so nice, why do you get all tense and defensive whenever Mr. Ogawa comes by?"

A blink, and then a shake of his head. "And here I thought I had done a good job hiding that. You're so perceptive, Nanoha," Shiro chuckled ruefully. "To answer your question, I don't think Genjuro would knowingly put you in over your head. But Genjuro has to answer to people who _would_ , and…" He sighed. "That doesn't stop things from just going _wrong._ I worry every time you fight, Nanoha." Unconsciously, he ran a hand along one of the many scars on his torso.

This was not missed by the young girl, and she wrapped her father up in a hug from behind. "I'll be careful," she said. "I wouldn't want to leave you and Mom and everyone else lonely."

"SHIRO!"

Breaking the hug, Shiro practically sprinted for the kitchen, leaving Nanoha giggling again.

~o~

Chris Yukine was, in general, an angry person, something that anyone who spent more than five minutes with her tended to figure out. She had a lot to _be_ angry about, she thought. Her parents had been killed in front of her on some foolhardy humanitarian excursion to South America. She'd been picked up by human trafficers shortly afterward and passed along from abuser to abuser. Much of it had been sexual. Oh, yes, she had much to be angry about.

It was better, these days. Genjuro _cared_ , and try as she might (and she had tried very hard) she couldn't see him as anything more than what he seemed: a friendly man who would do his damnedest to keep her safe without smothering her. Hibiki was annoying and naive, but somehow that translated into _endearing._ And Tsubasa… Tsubasa _understood_ , somewhat, and was always willing to let Chris vent or just sit in the same room and not say anything when she couldn't deal with people without snapping at them.

Anyway, the anger that was below the surface was now _on_ the surface. Her brows had been drawn in a tight frown for hours now, lips an angry line and arms crossed. Her foot tapped impatiently on the floor of the helicopter. Hibiki, sitting next to her one of the benches, had sensibly scooted to the other side of the cabin fifteen minutes in.

And inside? Inside Chris Yukine's mind burned the fury of a thousand exploding suns. The ire of the Great Khan defied. The rage of a Mario Kart player in first place the second after getting hit by a blue shell. She veritably _seethed._

' _Tsubasa, you idiot!'_

It was easy to blame Tsubasa, getting caught and brainwashed by the enemy like that. Easier than being angry at some nameless, faceless villain she couldn't shoot in the face anytime soon. Sakuya had been very clear that they'd need time to search for this _Yayaka._ It was _definitely_ easier than facing the guilt that gnawed away at her underneath the anger. The Staff of Solomon. _She_ had wielded it for Fine. How many people had those Noise killed? How many more would die to it this time. It needed to be locked away and the key thrown away. _She_ needed to lock it away.

"Uh, Chris?"

Chris gave Hibiki a sidelong glare, and the other girl flinched and looked away. Great. Another thing to be guilty about. But Chris' anger squashed that guilt in a long-practiced move, merely fueling it further.

"Um, excuse me?"

The glare slid along to the _other_ inhabitant of the helicopter. With her age (probably fresh out of college), glasses, practical but nice clothing, and obvious computer bag, not to mention overall soft demeanor, Chris had pegged her for a science type almost immediately. Right now, the computer bag had been moved to her lap from where it'd been sitting on the bench next to her, the top open and a soft-looking, abused purple ball in one hand.

"What?" Chris grunted.

"I use this as a stress ball," the woman explained, giving it a squeeze that quite visibly deformed the ball. "It just seems like you could use it more than me, right now."

Chris opened her mouth to say that she damn well didn't need a stress ball, thank you very much, she needed to _shoot_ somebody, when a hand alighted on her shoulder. She turned her head to see Hibiki giving her _The Look._ The look that Chris could never quite describe, but she knew said "Don't do this. You're better than that." The one that always made her want to grab Hibiki, and shake her, and yell "No! I'm not better than that!", and yet never did.

So, she turned back to the woman and said, "I'll take it, if you're offering."

Smiling brightly, the woman tossed the ball over. Chris caught it and went to work squeezing it as hard as she could. It did, in fact, help a lot. She quickly lost herself in the soothing rhythm of squeezing and releasing.

"So, uh, I'm Tachibana Hibiki. Nice to meet you!"

"Yukishiro Honoka. A pleasure to meet you, too, Miss Tachibana."

"Aheheheh… just call me Hibiki, please? Miss Tachibana sounds like my mother…"

"Of course!"

Squeeze, release. Squeeze, release.

"So, uh, what brings- I mean, uh, why are you- aheheheheh…"

A chuckle. "Oh, don't worry, I've been briefed on what Section 2 does and signed all the nondisclosure agreements. To answer your question, I'll be working on the science team in Section 2, though no one had time to tell me on _what_ before I was bundled into this helicopter _._ "

"Oh! You're going to be taking over Ryoko's job!"

Ryoko. _Fine._ Squeeze harder. Release.

"I'm replacing the head of your science team?"

"Actually, I think Ryoko _was_ the science team."

"... Well, this job certainly won't be _boring."_

Squeeze. Release. Squeeze. Release.

"You're probably going to be doing relic-searching," Chris heard herself saying. "The Commander can brief you on this in more detail, but we… misplaced a completed relic recently and we need to find it quickly."

Glancing up, Chris found a smile once again on Yukishiro's face. This one wasn't sunny and friendly, though. This one was more… predatory. A very specific kind of predatory, one she had seen on Fine's face before among the _other_ varieties. Chris suppressed a snort.

' _Scientists.'_

The helicopter banked, coming in for a landing, and Chris schooled her expression and stuffed the hand with the stress ball into a convenient pocket. That did not mean she stopped squeezing it.

Glancing out the window, she noted with some surprise that they seemed to be landing in a shipyard. Since they were going to headquarters, Chris had thought they'd be going somewhere inland, in an office park or under another school or something. Her eyes alighted upon a submarine of rather odd construction sitting tied up at a pier, and it clicked.

' _Of course. A mobile HQ makes sense. How many times did Hibiki have to_ run _to a Noise incursion?'_

"Oh, cool!" Hibiki gushed. With a start, Chris realized the other girl had undone her seatbelt to get a better view. "Is that our new headquarters?"

"It won't matter if you don't sit down and put on your damn seatbelt, idiot!" Chris snapped, squeezing the stress ball harder.

The sight of Hibiki yelping and hastily securing the belt again was a soothing balm on Chris' temper.

~o~

Honoka was the last out the door of the helicopter, which gave her an excellent view of Kazanari Genjuro greeting the two girls. It involved much ruffling of hair and an indignant squawk of outrage from Chris.

' _He really is a big teddy bear,'_ she thought wonderingly. She'd heard the stories in Section One, of course, but seeing them was a whole other matter. ' _And Chris is definitely tsundere. In general, or for a specific person…?'_

She shook her head. ' _No thinking in anime tropes, Honoka! That way lies Nagisa yelling at you for trying to hook people up again!'_ Then again, Chris seemed really worried about somebody, if she was that agitated. Perhaps…

Honoka slapped her cheeks and shoved those thoughts down. Professional. Be professional.

"And you must be Miss Yukishiro."

Honoka blinked, finding Genjuro holding out his hand, which she hastily grabbed and shook.

"I read your thesis," he continued. "I'm not an expert in Heretical theory, but your conclusions were sound, from what I know."

"Thank you, Commander Kazanari," Honoka politely replied, trying to keep the earthshattering squeal of joy bubbling up within her contained. "Though, ah, I'd like to know what I'm to be doing here? There was no time to explain."

"Yeah, old man!" Chris jumped in. "What's the damn plan for finding Tsubasa and the Staff?"

Genjuro sobered up in an instant. It was actually a little scary, how fast it happened. "Follow me," he said, stepping onto the gangplank connecting the pier to the submarine.

The interior was not the cramped, gray, pipe-and-wire festooned interior depicted in movies. It wasn't exactly _spacious,_ but it was painted a more homey color and everything seemed to be buried behind the walls. All this was only distractedly taken in, because as they walked Genjuro was taking the opportunity to explain her position.

"To put it shortly, we need you to tune the long-range aufwachen sensors to search for the aufwachen waveform of a specific complete relic."

Honoka frowned, adjusting her glasses. Easy if it were activated and in use… "Activated or dormant?"

"Dormant, most likely," Genjuro answered.

Her frown deepened. "Tell me you at least have a previous record of the aufwachen waveform."

Genjuro shook his head, expression visibly apologetic. "It was a difficult relic to track even when it was being used," he explained. "Though given that the one responsible for tracking it was also the one using it, I don't think it'll be any harder to find than another completed relic."

She knew she should be angry. The orders were the worst sort of vaguery, the kind that send otherwise competent engineers barking up not just the wrong tree, but the wrong _forest._ Instead, Honoka felt _excited,_ though careful not to show. Certainly, it was a more interesting project than anything she'd done interning in Section One. "Well, this is less than ideal, but at least it'll be a challenge," she said, smiling and adjusting her glasses. "When can I start?"

Genjuro matched her smile with a grin of his own. "As soon as you can, please."

And with impeccable timing, a door slid open and the quartet walked into the bridge. Honoka immediately eyed two officers waiting just in front of the door.

"Miss Yukishiro, this is Fujitaka Sakuya and Tomosato Aoi," said Genjuro, indicating the two officers. "They'll show you to your console, and then to your dedicated lab. I apologize for giving you two different stations, but the designers were very insistent on funneling all the sensor outputs here, and there's no space for more specialized scientific equipment."

"It's fine," Honoka replied. Reaching out, she stretched her arms until her elbows popped. "Well, let's get started, shall we?"

~o~

Some hours later, Yukishiro had retreated to her laboratory to test a few things, Chris was stalking through the corridors of the sub, and Hibiki was hovering anxiously over Genjuro's shoulder. They'd had no leads on the Staff of Solomon or Tsubasa.

And while less than ideal, it was also not a surprise. This wasn't supposed to be a quick process, after all. And Genjuro had plenty of things to keep his mind occupied.

"Status?" he called out.

"All systems green, Commander," Sakuya reported back, as he had every time Genjuro had asked. Six hours, and not a single major failure in the submarine's systems. Considering how much new technology was crammed into the thing, that counted as an excellent shakedown even if it broke down entirely two minutes from now.

"Good," Genjuro said. "Take us into a dive. We'll test the depth limi-"

Something flashed on Aoi's screen, something that prompted her to gasp and turn around immediately. "Commander! Surveillance camera footage has spotted Yayaka!"

"Where?" Hibiki asked before even Genjuro could.

"Akihabara!"

A pause, and then… "Wait, what's she doing _there?!"_ Hibiki yelped.

 **AN: Chapter 2 done, introducing some of the other series I'm bringing in. One new thing I'm going to try with this fic is answer any review questions in an opening Author's Note, the ones that don't require multiple paragraphs. Those will get a direct PM. Of course, I also need some actual reviews to answer...**

 ***hint hint***


	3. Gathering 13

**Gathering 1.3**

 **AN:**

 **Bowser3000000: Nice catch! Only one season of Pretty Cure will be making an appearance; notably, the only one I'm actually familiar with. As for Fate, she** _ **technically**_ **counts as Bureau personnel, so she's unfortunately sidelined for this story. Don't worry, I have sequels planned, and she will appear there.**

"Amazing… brilliant! So this is the Heretical Technology! Yes, it's everything I imagined! No, more!"

Yayaka grimaced as the scientist Amaryllis had… provided for the mission fawned over the Staff of Solomon. There was much giggling and waving of hands involved. Creepy. The besuited security goons were at least quiet. Eerily quiet, but quiet. This guy's fawning and raving act got old real quick.

"Doctor!" she interrupted, the man freezing in place. "Can you build the portal projector or not?! The sooner we get that built, the sooner we can free your 'goddess'."

The doctor's mood shifted, from euphoric to… well, orgasmic was disgustingly accurate. "Yesssss… the goddess…" he breathed, wringing his hands. "Quite right, quite right… ah, I have the necessary components on hand, but I'll need a power source."

Great. Another fetch quest. "Can't we just hook it up to the grid?" Yayaka asked, almost desperately.

"The grid does not provide enough _current,_ my dear girl!" the doctor snapped, looming over Yayaka. "The power grid is _excellent_ for providing lots of power over time, but for a massive burst at once, it is useless without a building's worth of capacitors! No, we must have something that can deliver more energy at once!"

Where did Amaryllis find this guy? Shaking her head, Yayaka reached out and pushed back the scientist via hand to the face. "Okay, okay. Personal space, please." Reluctantly, she turned to Tsubasa, standing attentively next to her in civilian garb. A pang of guilt ran through her at the lifeless expression on her face. ' _I just need her for a few more days,'_ Yayaka told herself. ' _Then I can let her go. Besides, it's harmless. Amaryllis said so.'_

"So, got any ideas to solve our little power problem?" she asked.

Tsubasa frowned contemplatively, cupping her chin. "Section 2 retrieved several fragments of Durandal," she said after a few minutes. "It powered Kadingir; even the energy retained in those fragments might be enough to power the projector. I can think of no other options."

"Though that begs the question of how we _get_ them…" Yayaka groused. Sadly, Tsubasa had no answer.

There was a bang, and Yayaka turned her attention back to the doctor, who had just yelped and jumped back in a manner reminiscent of Dr. Salt's pet scientist, with his bowl cut and glasses. Another pang ran through her; this one, though, she shoved down. _That_ guy's excitability was annoying, not endearing. Also, the plume of smoke rising above the half-assembled device was _probably_ more important.

"Problem, doctor?" she called out.

"Yes! It's these blasted components!" he groused, throwing up his hand. "Cheap commercial parts! How am I supposed to summon the goddess with _these_ pieces of shoddy hardware?!"

"Too bad we can't just nip down to Akihabara and _buy_ more…" Yayaka muttered under her breath, before frowning. Actually, why _couldn't_ they? Well, take them, not buy them, but the idea was the same. Oh, right, because that'd be super obvious and get those Section 2 guys crawling up their asses.

Wait a minute…

A sly grin spread on Yayaka's face. Yes, that would get Section 2's attention, wouldn't it? The same Section 2 they needed to get the shards from.

' _Hmm… plan forming…'_

"Doctor, think you can whip up a transmitter of some kind?" she asked. "Just a small one, y'know. Something we can track."

"Of course! Nothing simpler!"

Yayaka simply gave him a skeptical stare.

"Oh, you doubt my genius?! Then I'll make you the best transmitter you will ever need! It will survive anything you throw at it, from the vacuum of space to the Challenger Deep!"

A snort escaped Yayaka as the doctor scrambled off. Way too easy. Turning to the two closest goons, she pointed at each in turn and said, "You and you. Change into something for normal people. You're my mules." Finally, she turned to Tsubasa. "Alright, here's the plan…"

~o~

Some hours later found Yayaka in her third store, this time a ground-level affair, with one of her swords pointed at the hapless clerk. A gash in the counter marked his lone attempt to go for the alarm. Not that it mattered, given the crowd they'd already gathered. This was on Youtube already, she just knew it.

"So, we got the last of it?" she called back to her two pack mules, who were still rummaging through the shelves.

"Yes, mistress Yayaka," both men intoned in eerie unison. Yayaka shuddered. Super creepy. But she _had_ to work with them...

"Alright, you know the plan. Once you've got everything, blend into the crowd, we're gonna have company any second!"

The sound of a helicopter prompted Yayaka to lower her blades and step outside, spotting the aircraft in between the skyscrapers.

"Correction: we're gonna have company _right now!"_

Nodding, the two goons exited the storefront and shoved their way into the crowd that had developed. Nobody stopped them, and briefly, Yayaka wondered where the police were, but with Symphogears now out in the open Section 2 had probably told them to stand down. Oh well. Made things easier for herself.

The crowd parted like a vast school of fish as she strode out into the center of the street, leaving a sizeable bubble of bare pavement around her. Yayaka tracked the helicopter as it circled once, twice, and then two figures fell out of it, figures that were quickly enveloped in a flash of light. Smirking, Yayaka stepped back, as did the crowd, and Chris and Hibiki thus crashed into bare asphalt instead of something squishier.

Immediately, Chris aimed her crossbows at Yayaka. "Alright, tell us where the Staff of Solomon is, and I'll at least leave you able to walk!"

"Chris!" Hibiki yelped, scandalized.

Yayaka just smirked even harder. "Ah, a woman after my own heart," she said, hands drifting to her back. "But I'm afraid I can't take you up on your _oh so generous_ offer."

Chris' eyes narrowed, and she fired, the crowd yelping and stumbling back as the arrows crashed into the pavement just in front of their feet.

"Move back, everybody!" Hibiki shouted, waving her hands. "Please move back! Make space!"

Ignoring Hibiki's attempt at crowd control and the crowd indeed moving back, Chris' eyes turned skyward, tracking the cables that had carried Yayaka away from her attack and three stories up a building's side. "Catch me if you can!" the blonde taunted, launching another pair of cables into the opposite building.

Chris' response was immediate: Ichaival shifted modes, sprouting the twin gatlings of her Billion Maiden and opening fire. Bullets filled the sky, Chris' instincts for gunnery letting her effectively lead Yayaka.

Of course, Yayaka wasn't going to just sit there and eat lead. A hard yank on the cables stopped her just short of the initial burst, and in a fluid motion she unhooked her rear cables and swung down onto the building facade. She wasted no time in firing them back across the street and detaching her other pair before kicking off, blades drawn and spinning for Chris, who was still swinging around to try and retarget her slippery opponent.

She did manage to turn around, and while Yayaka was too close for the gatlings to perforate her the barrels served well as an impromptu shield. With an almighty clang, Yayaka's blades bounced off, sending Chris briefly skidding back. Cables snapped taught, drawing the blonde up and away, but not before the Symphogear wielder banished her gatlings and spun around, crossbows firing. The arrows were deflected, but that hadn't been what she'd been aiming for.

"Shit!" Yayaka spat as the arrows shattered the glass her anchors had been buried in. Deflecting a few more arrows, she landed on the pavement and immediately had to roll out of the way of a burst of machine-pistol fire. Springing out of the roll, she shot straight at Chris, who yelped and fell back and under an inside swipe. Smirking, Yayaka swung out her leg and jammed her foot straight into Chris' gut, sadly only getting an annoyed grunt in return.

Still, Yayaka took the opportunity to push off and fire off her cables again, grasping a building and pulling her out of the way of one of Hibiki's fists right as it swooshed through the spot where her head had been a bare second before.

"Hey! I thought I told you to let me handle this!" Chris snapped, switching back to her crossbows.

"Sorry! Blame shishou, I saw an opening and I acted on instinct!" Hibiki apologized. "Besides, I managed to get the crowd away, so…"

Looking around, Chris saw that the crowd was, indeed, almost gone, only a few stragglers huffing and puffing around the nearest corner. She turned her gaze back to Yayaka, who was perched on the side of the nearest building like Spider-Man. Oh, and was reaching for something _else_ on her back.

Immediately, Chris fired off an arrow salvo, one that the other girl dodged _again_ with another push-off and set of anchors. This time, she pulled out what looked like a large tonfa in the one hand, one that she was aiming in their general direction. Chris braced to dodge a projectile.

She was _not_ expecting a large spear to shoot at them _way_ faster than she was expecting. Her dodge was much more frantic than she'd planned, as a result.

The explosion that followed tossed her into a parked car.

Groaning, Chris hauled herself out of the dented metal to see Yayaka shooting towards her, swords drawn again and Hibiki desperately sprinting in to try and stop her. Sadly, the other Symphogear was moving entirely too slowly, but Yayaka was also charging right at her. Smirking, Chris re-summoned Billion Maiden, aimed-

"DIVINE SHOOTER!"

And then five balls of pink energy slammed into her opponent out of nowhere, tossing her into the much-abused storefront she'd been robbing not ten minutes ago. Hauling herself out of the car she'd inadvertently smashed, Chris took in the newcomer, floating down on wings of pink energy. She wore a fancy white dress, didn't look older than eleven, and more importantly, carried an ornate, two-pronged golden staff that was currently pointed at Yayaka and glowing with pink energy.

"Please surrender before anyone else gets hurt!" the girl commanded. Chris almost rolled her eyes, but boosted the plea by reverting her Symphogear back to crossbow form and stepping up beside the girl in white.

"Please," she said, pointing said crossbows at the downed magical girl. "Make my day."

Yayaka, who had been in the process of extricating herself from the storefront, took one look at the weapons pointed at her and stilled, before slowly lifting her arms above her head. In a flash of light and sparkles, her outfit vanished, replaced by a simple set of jeans, t-shirt, and hoodie.

The girl in white sighed in what was probably relief and lowered her weapon, the pink glow fading. Chris did not, not until Hibiki jogged in and grabbed their quarry by the wrists, yanking them behind her back.

"So, uh, now what?" Hibiki wondered.

Chris didn't respond, instead putting her hand to one of her headphones. "Eagle Three, this is Sharpshooter. Need egress and restraints," she said.

" _Copy that, Sharpshooter."_

"You have a _callsign?!"_ Yayaka and Hibiki demanded in unison. "Why don't I have one?!" Hibiki continued.

One delicate white eyebrow rose. "Do I need to remind you what happened the _last_ time you got free radio access?" she queried.

Hibiki immediately went cherry red, an unladylike snort and a childish giggle coming from Yayaka and the girl in white, respectively.

Up above, the helicopter that had delivered them switched from hovering to a descent down to the street. Belatedly, Chris eyeballed the clearances. A bit tight, but Section 2 recruited its helicopter pilots from the JMSDF. A destroyer's landing pad was a much trickier target. And indeed, the helicopter landed with little space to spare, but safely. The copilot jumped out with a set of zipties and quickly secured Yayaka's hands, allowing Hibiki to guide her into the helicopter, the white-clad girl and Chris entering shortly behind. With that, the helicopter lifted off again, and turned for headquarters.

Naturally, it didn't even take five minutes for Chris to get up in Yayaka's face, giving her the Symphogear's best glare.

The blonde girl simply favored her with an unimpressed stare. "What?"

"Where's the staff?" Chris bit out.

A knowing smirk spread over Yayaka's face. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Snarling, Chris reared her hand back, only to have it caught by Hibiki.

"Stop, Chris, you're going to hurt her!" the other Symphogear pleaded.

"That's the point!"

"At least leave it to shishou!"

A growl tumbled out of Chris' throat, but she pointedly unclenched her fist, and Hibiki let go of her. The girl in white took the opportunity to move in front of Yayaka and kneel down in front of her, eyes wide and pleading.

"Please, tell me why you need the Staff of Solomon," she said. "It's dangerous, we all know it is. So why…?"

Yayaka's smirk vanished. Something unreadable crossed her face, and she looked away. "Sorry, kid, but I can't say," she said. "This is something I need to do myself, and I _need_ the Staff for that."

"So tell us!" the girl in white exclaimed. "Please! Maybe we can help! And even if we can't, if it's for the right cause-"

Chris snorted derisively, while Yayaka remained stubbornly silent. Sighing, the girl in white stood. "Just think about it, okay?"

"That never works, you know," Chris remarked as she rejoined the two Symphogears.

"Maybe," the girl in white conceded. "But even if we end up fighting… it helps, knowing you're willing to talk. Especially when they're not a bad person."

"She attacked Genjuro, brainwashed Tsubasa, and is planning to use the Staff of Solomon to do who knows what!" Chris shot back, voice rising. "A Staff that, need I remind you, summons _Noise!_ Of course she's a bad person!"

"Is she?" the girl in white asked, her head tilted innocently.

That one, simple question rocked Chris back on her metaphorical heels. A large part of her wanted to fire back, say that of _course_ Yayaka was a bad person, that she and Fine had used the Staff and weren't _they_ bad people? And yet… another, smaller part of her, one still young and weak and trembling, said no. She wasn't a bad person, even if she had done bad things.

Eyes wide, Chris flopped down to one of the helicopter's benches. Hibiki nervously eyed her fellow Symphogear and hastily said, "Oh, uh, I didn't get your name!"

"Oh!" the girl in white gasped, before hastily bowing. "Sorry. I'm Takamachi Nanoha, pleased to meet you!"

"Tachibana Hibiki! And the grump's Chris Yukine."

 _That_ finally broke Chris out of her little moral crisis. " _Grumpy?!"_ she demanded, shooting to her feet. Reaching out, she grabbed Hibiki by the cheeks and _pulled._ "I'll show you grumpy, you little-!"

Suddenly, the helicopter rocked, nearly throwing everyone onto their butts. This was followed by another, worse bout of turbulence that actually _did_ knock them down, accompanied by the sound of screeching metal. The noise of the engine abruptly died, and with a sickening lurch, the helicopter pitched nose-first into freefall.

"What the heck-" Hibiki began before one of the doors of the helicopter was wrenched open and tossed out into the void.

In the doorway now stood _another_ girl in a white dress, though hers was visibly armored and at once less complex and more fancy than Nanoha's. Bright pink butterfly wings and a small silver crown on top of short-cropped blue hair completed the look.

"Sorry about this," she said, before reaching in, grabbing Yayaka, and then flying off.

The gathered magical girls stared in naked shock for a second, but being all veterans they quickly shook it off. Even with the helicopter now spinning wildly.

"After her, Nanoha!" Chris barked. "You're the only one who can catch her! We'll get the pilots to safety."

Nanoha nodded, and jumped out the helicopter after the newcomer, wings springing back to life. Hibiki was already moving to the cockpit, which left Chris to jump out of the tumbling helicopter and ponder her landing strategy. A glance around showed that they were over a rural area of the Izo peninsula, and so something with high collateral damage was perfectly acceptable. Grinning, she activated her Megadeth Quartet, but fired off only one of the massive rockets. Her feet touched down, and then pressed the engine end of the rocket down, fighting against gravity.

When the rocket crashed into the ground and exploded a couple minutes later, Chris had bled off enough energy that the actual landing was soft. Well. Soft by Symphogear standards. A normal human would have needed to pull off a perfect roll lest they break their ankles. She just needed to brace her knees. For a moment, Chris was proud of her strategy.

Then Hibiki crashed into the ground next to her like a meteor, crater and all.

"Ow ow ow, my ankles…" Hibiki groaned as she stepped out of her crater, the pilots of the helicopter slung under her arms. .

"Maybe next time try a landing strategy that _doesn't_ involve just landing at terminal velocity, dummy," Chris admonished, though without any heat.

"But it worked, right?" Hibiki replied, setting down one shaken and one fainted pilot. "You okay?"

"J-Just fine."

Chris tuned out any reply, instead scanning the surrounding area for any sign of Nanoha or the _other_ unknown magical girl. Seriously, how many were going to crawl out of the woodwork? Unfortunately, there was no sign of them.

"Right, we need to go find Nanoha and back her up," Chris said, before muttering under her breath, "And make sure she doesn't let our only lead go out of some misguided sense of sympathy…"

"Um, I'm sorry, but I can't let that happen…"

Yet another magical girl descended from the sky, though this one at least had a similar aesthetic to the last one. The main differences were in the long red hair and the _exceptionally_ conflicted expression on her face.

Despite that, she declared, "Cocona told me to keep you away, so that's what I'm going to do!", before charging up energy in her fists. Chris summoned her crossbows, ready to fight-

"W-Wait! Could you at least tell us what Yayaka wants?" Hibiki jumped in. "Uh, Cocona just snatched her, I'm pretty sure, so do you know anything?"

"Idiot, you can't just-!"

"Oh, thank goodness," the red-haired girl breathed, slumping bonelessly in place. "I really, really, really didn't want to fight you. We're supposed to be on the same side! Right?" A smile that damn near blinded Chris sprouted on her face. "Hey! I've got it, there's this really good takoyaki place nearby where we can go and eat takoyaki and talk about Cocona and Yayaka and _not_ punch each other!" A dreamy expression and a small line of drool sprouted on her face. "Mm, octopus…"

An explosion bloomed in the distance, tinged a mix of pink and blue. The redhead blinked, sucking in the drool. Her expression immediately shifted back to concerned.

"Orrrr maybe we could go stop Cocona and your friend from killing each other?"

Sighing, Chris dispelled her crossbows and rubbed the back of her head. "Oh, what the heck…"


	4. Gathering 14

**Gathering 1.4**

Yayaka's world was a confused jumble of blurred images, hazy memories of getting stuck in a tumble-dryer as a young child rising unbidden in her mind. The whole experience was just beginning to become nauseating when she crashed back-first onto the ground, grunting at the none-too-gentle impact.

"Owowowowow…" Yayaka groaned, hauling herself into a sitting position and eyeing her new captor. "Well, geez, Cocona, if y'wanted to see me this badly you could've just called."

Cocona's glare didn't let up an iota. "I did," she icily replied. "You didn't answer."

Yayaka shivered. ' _Okay, yeah, I probably should've seen this coming,'_ she thought, wincing.

As she thought that, Cocona continued to talk, voice steadily rising. "You… You just disappear for- for _weeks,_ without saying a _word,_ and then the next thing I know, Papika nearly breaks my window to tell me you're on the _news_ in _Akihabara_ stealing electronics!" Her voice continually wavered between fiercely angry and brittle and ready to crack nearly at random. Her expression followed, at points angry and distressed. "What's going on, Yayaka? Is this about your Soul Gem? We could've fixed that! Dr. Salt-"

"Was taking too long," Yayaka blandly cut in. "Only one person has been able to clean my gem without a Grief Seed, and it ain't Dr. Salt. Also, there been any witches around lately?"

Cocona's expression veered hard towards 'distressed', which was more than enough. "Yeah, thought so," Yayaka sighed.

Stricken, Cocona took a step forward, one hand clenched to her breast. "Yayaka, please. W-We can- you don't-"

"Lock."

Pink rings made out of energy abruptly blinked into existence around Cocona's wrists and ankles, and the girl that Yayaka had surrendered to - Nanoha, wasn't it? - floated down on wings of pink energy, her expression open and almost pleading.

Before she or Yayaka could say anything, Cocona turned her head in Nanoha's direction. "Stay out of this," she veritably _snarled._ Yayaka shuddered; it just sounded _wrong,_ coming from her friend.

"I'm sorry, I can't," Nanoha said, sounding apologetic. "We need her to tell us where the Staff of Solomon is. It's very dangerous! Maybe afterward-"

"I don't care," Cocona shot back. "I'm taking Yayaka back, I'm not waiting, and nothing you say is going to change that." Her butterfly-wing sword flashed into her hand, and with a flare of her power, the rings holding her collapsed into pink shards.

"Wait-!" Nanoha cried out, throwing her free hand out, and then Cocona was on her, sword buried into a wall of runes, her friend's momentum carrying both combatants away from the ridge Yayaka was still sitting on.

Shifting her position again, Yayaka shuffled herself around to watch where the two had gone. As much as she didn't want anyone to get hurt in this whole plan, this fight was just too juicy to resist. And, well, Nanoha had shot her and Cocona was being a stubborn idiot again. There was perhaps a _little_ vindictive pleasure motivating her.

~o~

Gritting her teeth, Cocona pushed harder on her sword, trying to break through the barrier that had blocked her initial strike. Sadly, it stubbornly refused to go any deeper. Switching tactics, she tried to pull back, only to find her sword outright _stuck_ in the barrier. Oh, and the other girl's staff was now glowing with the same pink energy all her techniques seemed to have.

"Oh dear," Cocona breathed, right before Nanoha shouted "Smash!" and swung the energy blast right into Cocona's face.

It was like getting hit with one of Mimi's old constructs. Cocona went flying into the canopy below, crashing through trees and then hitting the ground and skidding. Planting a hand, she flipped back onto her feet, head on a swivel looking for the other girl.

"Barrel Shot."

Once again, her whole body froze up. It was becoming very annoying. Slowly, she turned her head around; naturally, the pigtailed girl had her staff aimed at Cocona and was charging up another pink attack. It was actually rather distressingly large.

"My name is Nanoha Takamachi!" she called out. "Please, just tell me what's going on!"

"I told you!" Cocona shouted back, straining at her bonds. No dice. "I'm taking back Yayaka, no matter what you say!"

The girl's - Nanoha's - expression turned stricken, and she closed her eyes. "Then I'm sorry," she said. "But I can't let you do that. DIVINE! BUSTER!"

Faced with a tree-sized beam of pink energy bearing down at her, Cocona flared her power in a desperate attempt to break the invisible bind holding her, much like the first. It worked, but she didn't have time to do anything other than catch the beam on the flat of her blade. The force of the impact rocked her back on her heels, and she was unable to re-anchor enough to stop the continued pressure from sending her skidding back. Gritting her teeth, she flooded the sword with power and _swung._

"Grah!"

The swing scattered the beam to the winds. It did nothing for the five energy balls that swooped in after and smacked into her, one on the cheek and the other four to the torso. But her Henshin shrugged it off, and, already off her feet, she shot into the air, unwilling to just stand there and be shot at.

As expected, Nanoha shot up after her, and with surprising speed, too. But that speed actually worked against her; almost before her opponent had even cleared the canopy, Cocona flipped in mid-air and soared down at her, sword held back.

Eyes wide, Nanoha yelped "Protection!", also frantically hitting the brakes.

Cocona's sword slammed into the barrier and, in a burst of blue energy, shattered it. Unfortunately, it _also_ bounced Cocona and her sword back, the latter leaving the blade temporarily out of position. In a sudden burst of speed Nanoha opened the distance again and fired off another salvo of those pink balls. These, at least, were quickly chopped up and dispersed.

There was a pause in the battle as the two combatants floated in the air and stared at each other, each assessing their next move. Cocona, for her part, was growing increasingly frustrated with the whole affair. Oh, if only Papika were here; she was the long-range combatant, not her, and even if she couldn't match Nanoha in an artillery duel she would at least create an opening for Cocona to get in close.

' _Though, who says I can't borrow a page from her playbook?'_ she mused, clenching her free hand into a fist.

Well, that answered the question of what to do when she closed in, but not the _how_ of closing in. Then again, she only needed one opening and had created several herself already...

~o~

Nanoha, too, was considering her next move. The blue-haired girl fought similarly to Fate and Vita, in that all three were melee-oriented aerial fighters, but her opponent had neither Fate's speed and ranged ability nor Vita's skill and tendencies for sharp bursts of destruction. No, she was straightforward, direct, and had enough baseline brute force to make it work.

' _Well, I'm just going to have to try harder, won't I?'_

The blue-haired girl seemed to make a decision and charged straight at her, and Nanoha settled on a plan. If Divine Buster wasn't enough, she had stronger attacks, but with how easily the girl had broken her Shoot Barrel, she needed to make her not expect that. And the best way to do that… well, much melee action was involved.

' _Oh, I'm probably going to regret this…'_

It took some fighting, but Nanoha shoved down her first instinct to scoot and shoot _away_ from her opponent's charge. Instead, she hovered in the air, letting a bit of mana leak out of Raising Heart in a display of pink light. Closer… closer… closer…

The blue-haired girl was close and rearing back her sword when Nanoha blurred into another Flash Move, one that took her right behind her opponent.

' _Yes!'_

Swinging Raising Heart like a club, Nanoha slammed the Device square between the blue-haired girl's shoulder blades. At which point it exploded. In pink, of course.

As expected, that did little other than annoy her opponent, who swung around and tried to chop her head off. Nanoha threw out her hand, conjuring up another Holding Shield, a stronger Cross Smasher than her first charging up. The sword stuck fast in the barrier, as expected.

What was _not_ expected was the girl's free hand suddenly glowing blue and then smashing into the shield, shattering it. Stunned, Nanoha was wide open for the sword strike that slammed into her barrier jacket, cleaving right through the protections. It would have gone further if not for a quick Reactor Purge and an immediate dive for the deck.

"Okay, _definitely_ stay out of melee range," Nanoha muttered, her barrier jacket re-forming. Glancing up, she yelped and banked hard left as a blue meteor slammed into the dirt. A panicked Divine Shooter splashed harmlessly off the blue aura, Nanoha clawing for more distance. But that willful disregard for any form of _dodging,_ combined with the rest of their fight, was exactly what she had been aiming for.

Spinning around, she shouted "Wide Area Protection!" and came to a halt. The butterfly girl, once again charging straight in, slammed into the barrier and bounced clean off. Nanoha took advantage of the brief moment of disorientation to quickly fire off another Restrict Lock.

"Load cartridge!" she barked, two ramming home. A distinctive Mid-Style circle sprang to life in front of Raising Heart, one that would've sent most of her comrades diving for cover had they been there. Outside, the blue-haired girl once again shattered the binds holding her and held her sword in front of her, looking grimly determined to meet her attack head on.

Good.

"EXELION!" Nanoha declared. She never got to finish the attack. Hibiki suddenly jumped in front of it, arms flung wide, prompting her to hastily abort the spell, and through the mana haze she could see someone restraining the blue-haired girl from behind.

"Hibiki, what's going on!" she asked, bewildered, also dismissing her Wide Area Protection.

"Cocona, stop!" came a new voice from where the blue-haired - no, _Cocona -_ was. "Stop fighting! It's not going to bring Yayaka back!"

"Papika, let go of me!"

"Uh, so, Cocona - that's the one you were fighting - had a friend," Hibiki explained, jabbing a thumb at the struggling girl. Nanoha looked over the newcomer, noting the long red hair and similar outfit. "And, well, she was supposed to stop me and Chris, but she just wanted to talk! So we were gonna talk, and then we saw your fight."

"Yeah!" piped up a smiling Papika, probably the new friend Hibiki was referring to. "We're all good guys here, aren't we?"

"They want to take Yayaka away!" Cocona insisted, and it was at this that Nanoha finally lowered Raising Heart. There was just a bit too much of Precia in those desperate eyes.

"Only for a little bit," she explained. "We just need her to tell us where the Staff is, and we can…" She paused, frowning in thought. "Well, I'm sure Mr. Genjuro could figure out something."

"Heheheh," Hibiki chuckled. "Yeah, probably. He did it for Chris, didn't he?"

Nanoha frowned. "Speaking of which, where is Chris?"

~o~

"You can put the gun away," Yayaka sighed, still sitting on the patch of rough ground Cocona had so rudely dumped her on. "I'm not going to try and escape."

"Yeah, I'm not taking that chance," Chris replied, pressing her pistol a little closer to Yayaka's scalp.

Another sigh escaped her lips. And then an idea came to her…

"Look, I wasn't gonna say anything, but the touchy-feely routine is getting a bit old," Yayaka casually stated. "I don't swing that way, y'know?"

When instead of a sputtered denial a predatory smirk spread across Chris' face, like a fox in a henhouse, Yayaka came to the conclusion that she _might_ have made a tactical error. That 'might' was upgraded to a 'HELL YES!' when Chris leaned in, ran a finger down Yayaka's neck, and blew away.

"Noodles are straight, too, before you get them wet," she purred sultrily.

' _Bad touch, bad touch!'_

Yayaka was beaten to scrambling away by Chris pulling away herself, still grinning but now in victory. "Sorry, kid, but you're a thousand years too early to try and compete with _me_ in this arena."

Shuddering, Yayaka favored her captor with an annoyed glare. ' _You win this round…'_

~o~

"Oh, good," Nanoha sighed, reaching up and rubbing the back of her head. "To be honest, I'd kinda forgotten about her… Nyahahaha…"

"Anyway…" Hibiki turned back to Cocona and Papika, expression hopeful. "Is that okay? We really do need to talk to her."

Cocona's defiant expression remained a moment longer, then she sighed and relaxed. "Papika, you can let go of me now," she said.

Papika shook her head, shifting from holding Cocona under her arms to around her chest. "Don't wanna!"

Another sigh was accompanied by an eye-roll, albeit a fond one. "Fine. Anyway, if you're bringing Yayaka to your headquarters, I'm coming too." Her expression hardened. "If you mistreat her in any way, or that commander of yours isn't as nice as he says he is…"

"Aww, you're cute when you're trying to be threatening, Cocona," Papika cooed. Cocona promptly went beet red and cradled her head in her hands. "But anyway, takoyaki! Ta-ko-ya-ki, ta-ko-ya-ki, ta-ko-ya-ki!"

"Um…" Nanoha raised a questioning finger.

"Oh, Papika offered to talk it out over takoyaki," Hibiki explained, shrugging. "I think we should do it! It's going to take a while for headquarters to send another helicopter out, and Chris is the one in communication, so that's going to take even _longer-_."

"That sounds great!"

"Takoyaki does sound good," Cocona admitted.

"Yay, takoyaki!"

"Um, excuse me?"

While Papika continued celebrating, everyone else turned to the pilots, who had apparently just been sitting there, watching.

"Can we come with you?" the pilot said.

The girls shared a look, and then said "Sure!", all in unison.

 **AN: Man, I'm cranking these out, aren't I? Probably because they're fairly short. Next one will be longer, if my current draft is any indication. That chapter will be an interlude chapter, where I share backstory stuff that I'm not able to fit into the narrative. This one should be... informative.**


	5. Interlude 1

**Interlude 1**

"A wish?"

Yayaka balefully eyed the white creature in front of her. It look like a stuffed animal, snow-white with beady (as in, they actually looked like beads) red eyes, hand-things coming out of its ears, and an unnatural stillness. Only the telepathic voice echoing in her head and the metronomic swishing of its tail gave any indication that it was alive.

" _Yes!"_ the thing that called itself Kyubey answered. " _You have great potential to be a Magical Girl, Yayaka. Your wish could be almost anything."_

"Heh… hahahahahaha… BWAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Though Kyubey's expression did not change, one got the distinct feeling that they had just done their equivalent of a slow, confused blink. " _I was not aware that I had said something humorous."_

Yayaka didn't reply, too busy kneeling on the ground laughing, clutching her stomach and slapping her hand on the pavement.

Finally, after a few minutes, her gales of laughter softened to breezes, and she was able to stand and wipe the tears from her eyes - and immediately transitioned to icy and serious.

"What's the catch?" she asked.

Kyubey was silent for a moment, then said, " _Merely that as a magical girl, you would be expected to fight 'Witches'."_

"And what's a Witch?" Yayaka snapped. "Something you guys created as an experiment and then lost control of?" This entire situation just _reeked_ of Asclepius' shenanigans. If it weren't for that wish - because bad experiences or not, that was damn tempting a prize - she'd have walked away already.

" _That… is not an inaccurate summation of the situation,"_ Kyubey admitted. At seeing the thunderous expression on Yayaka's face, the creature hastily explained. " _All Witches are descended from a single progenitor Witch, a Witch born from a curse that we… inadvertently unleashed. Witches feed on human souls, and are both drawn to despair and use it as their weapon to draw humans to them."_ The tail-lashing intensified. " _Sadly, as my race cannot use magic, we have to contract Magical Girls to destroy them."_

Still frowning, Yayaka thought that over. Admitting that they _had_ fucked up got Kyubey points in her book. And the story held water, as far as she could tell…

"Alright, make a wish, become magical girl, fight Witches. I assume there's more to it than that?"

" _Magic has a cost, of course."_ Yayaka nodded, because of course it did. " _Using your magic will cause your Soul Gem to darken. Killing a Witch will cause it to drop a Grief Seed, which you can use to cleanse your Soul Gem. And should your Soul Gem ever become black-"_

"Yeah, yeah, dire consequences and all that," Yayaka interrupted to cover her own nerves.

" _No, you simply lose your magic."_

' _And you also have a bridge in Osaka to sell me. Right.'_

"Well, if these Witches are such a problem, then I'm sure you could show me one," she pointed out. There. That would give her the excuse to reject this and-

" _You're in luck! There's one in this town right now. Follow me."_

Yayaka wasted a moment gaping after the white creature, before hurriedly following it. Kyubey led her down a winding path through the European-style buildings in town, before finally coming to a halt near a teenage boy shuffling into an alleyway.

Immediately, Yayaka knew something was wrong. His gait was, of course, shambling and unsteady, but she caught a glimpse of his eyes before he went out of sight, and they were glassy and unresponsive.

Oh, and he also had some weird tattoo on the back of his neck that was giving off _all_ the wrong vibes.

" _That is a Witch's Kiss,"_ Kyubey answered the unspoken question. " _Once placed, the Kissed human will be compelled to do whatever the Witch desires them to do."_

Yayaka immediately sprinted into the alley after the boy. " _I would not recommend that,"_ Kyubey remarked, following. " _He will resist. Probably violently."_

"I don't care!" Yayaka snapped, grabbing the boy by the shoulder. "Hey! Snap out of-!"

The boy's hand flashed out and shoved Yayaka back, before he resumed shuffling deeper into the alley. Growling, Yayaka surged forward, grabbed his arm, and shoved him down before planting her knee in his back. Immediately, he began snarling and shaking, trying to throw her off.

" _I told you he would resist,"_ Kyubey pointed out as he trotted up next to her.

"Can it, bunnycat," Yayaka grit out, trying to stay on his back. But at this point he was thrashing so much that she had to let go so he wouldn't accidentally break his arm or something. Immediately, he was up and shuffling on.

"Crap. Okay, so, how do I break that Kiss thing?"

" _Become a Magical Girl and defeat the witch!"_

"Yeah, should've known you'd say that…" Yayaka groused. Sighing, she followed after the student. Hopefully that would get her to the Witch.

It did, in fact, if what Kyubey said about the freaking _tear in reality_ she found a few minutes later was true. Gulping, she stepped forward.

"Here goes nothing."

There was a curious sensation when Yayaka crossed the threshold, like every cell in her body had briefly flipped upside down, and then she was in, staring at the familiar-and-unfamiliar scene.

"Okay, so it's like Pure Illusion…" She gulped again. "A really _nasty_ part of Pure Illusion."

The room she was in - and it was very much a room - was large yet cramped, stuffed full of what looked like hospital beds bearing odd, mannequin-esque figures sprawled in rictus poses. Everything except the stark white of the sheets and the scorched black-and-beige of the mannequins was either slate grey or deep-sea blue, the colors swirling back and forth in random patterns. The walls themselves looked like metal - at least, underneath a layer of pipes and wires hissing steam or dripping fluids Yayaka didn't even _want_ to be thinking about. The whole room was the dark of a night suburb, deep shadows in the corners and the rest given just enough ambient light to see. The whole thing stank of oil and salt water and burned pork.

Oh, and it was practically _buzzing_ with the largest, nastiest hornets Yayaka had ever seen. Each was the length of an American hot dog, the same blue and grey as the rest of the room, the stinger blindly obvious and their jaws serrated and mean.

Frantically, Yayaka looked behind her, only to find bare wall. Now feeling the creeping edges of panic, she looked around for some way, any way, out of this place, alighting on a square hole in the wall she couldn't see a damn thing through. That was her way out.

It also required her to go past the hornets and deeper into whatever pocket dimension this was.

"Kyubey?" she called out, mentally cursing how damn _scared_ she sounded.

" _I'm here,"_ Kyubey replied, manifesting near her feet, much to Yayaka's relief. " _Are you ready to make your wish now?"_

"Yeah," she said.

~o~

" _Aughk!"_

 _Slowly, Yayaka peeled off the wall she'd smacked into and flopped face-down, her whole body throbbing. Hands grasped her, and slowly eased her up, and she eyed Yuyu warily._

" _Don't want to hurt you," the Amorphous girl explained._

" _Could'a fooled me…" Yayaka grunted._

" _Weak," Toto added._

" _I know, dammit."_

" _Not a bad thing," Yuyu stated._

 _Yayaka didn't say anything, focusing on standing properly. Once she was up, the trio made their way to one of the holes in the walls of Asclepius' old headquarters, where they'd held the spar, her mind whirling all the while._

 _A great many things were touched on, of course, but despite Yuyu's assurance, they all came back to that one word: weak. She was weak. She wasn't formed from Amorphous like Yuyu and Toto, nor did she have that ridiculously strong connection Cocona and Papika had. She was… ordinary. Skilled, and unnaturally strong thanks to her own connection, but still thoroughly ordinary. Most of the time that didn't bother her._

 _It did when Papika dragged everyone on an adventure into Pure Illusion and they all had to_ protect _her._

 _Grunting, Yayaka shook her head to dispel her thoughts. It was her reality, and she had to deal. After all, it's not like superpowers fell from trees or something._

~o~

"I wish for you to make me as strong as you can. So that I never have to helplessly sit on the sidelines again."

For a long moment, Kyubey didn't respond. " _An interesting wish. And well within my grasp. Are you ready?"_

Yayaka nodded. Kyubey flung its weird ear-things out, the appendages stretching and expanding and then cupping over the center of Yayaka's chest. She gritted in pain as she felt some sort of metaphysical _suction_ , something within her being pulled out, stretched to breaking, and then sewn back together. But pain was an old companion to her. Even as moments stretched into eons, she simply gritted her teeth. And then, suddenly, it ended. A glittering gemstone floated in front of her, and by instinct she reached out and grabbed it. Green, and ornately decorated by what looked like delicate gold.

"There some kinda activation phrase for this thing?" she asked, voice still strained from the creation process.

" _Some girls elect to make one up, but it's not necessary. Just call on the power, and it will come."_

In fact, it was even easier than that. With but a thought, a flash of light enveloped Yayaka, fading to reveal her new outfit - and weapons.

"Neat," she said, tugging at the hem of her jacket. "And no frills. Lemme guess, I gotta figure this out on my own?"

" _That is correct. I can hardly-"_

"Yeah, yeah, same as it always is," Yayaka dismissively replied. "Talk later, fight now."

And with that, she drew her twin swords and darted into the open. And if either noticed the joyful smile she had on her face, neither commented.

~o~

"Nice job."

Yayaka straightened, Grief Seed in hand, and eyed the girl standing at the other end of the dusty room she'd found her third Witch Barrier in. Her eyes narrowed slightly. The school uniform she wore was unfamiliar, with a blazer and tie instead of her own sailor fuku. Which meant she was probably from out of town.

"You followed me in, didn't you," she said.

Chuckling sheepishly, the girl rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah, sorry about that. I'm new here, and I wanted to scope out the local magical girl before…" She trailed off.

Silence reigned for a few moments. "Before 'what'?" Yayaka prompted.

"It's nothing!" the girl said, a little too quickly and accompanied by a flick of her eyes to the Grief Seed Yayaka held. From there, it wasn't too hard to connect the dots.

Sighing, Yayaka held out her hand and said "Show me your Soul Gem."

The other girl hesitated, her entire body language radiating nervous energy. Yayaka switched to a glare and, with a full-body flinch, she carefully pulled her Soul Gem out of a pocket and handed it over.

Yayaka didn't even get to _touch_ it before her eyes bulged and her jaw dropped open. "Holy shit, girl, how long has it been since you cleaned this thing?!" she demanded, gaping at the near pitch-black Soul Gem. Not waiting for an answer, she pressed the Grief Seed into the other girl's hand. "Right, you need this more than I do."

"I-I can't take this!" she protested.

Rolling her eyes, Yayaka grabbed the Grief Seed - and then tapped it to the other girl's Soul Gem, drawing off most of the corruption until it blackened.

"There. Now there shouldn't be any problem." Yayaka pulled out her phone. "Anyway, give me your phone number; we can coordinate our Witch searching." The screentapping paused, a sheepish expression spreading on Yayaka's face. "Oh, and, uh, I need your name, too…"

"It's Osono Yayoi…" the girl replied, at which point she slapped her cheeks and shook her head. "Nonononono, wait, this is all backwards! You're supposed to be chasing me out, or giving me some speech at swordpoint about how this is your territory and I'm not supposed to kill-steal!"

Yayaka raised an eyebrow at the babble. "Do you _want_ me to do any of that?"

"Well, no, but-!"

"Then shut up and let me help you, then!"

Yayoi blinked, mouth open, and then she slow-motion crumpled to her knees, face in her hands and soft sobs wracking her body. Face a pained grimace, Yayaka crept forward, just enough to catch a few words.

"... thank… safe… cleanse again…"

A shot of anger surged through Yayaka at the thought of what those other magical girls had done, and how dark Yayoi's soul gem had been, and that anger manifested itself in a most unusual way for her: she knelt down beside her new friend - yes, new friend, no way was she leaving this girl alone - and wrapped her up in a hug.

~o~

"Are you sure your friends will…?"

Yayaka favored Yayoi with a confident smirk. "Eh, Cocona might take a bit to come around, but trust me, Papika is going to love you."

Uncertainly, "Okay…"

Mentally shrugging, Yayaka went back to eating. A cry of "YAYAAAAAAA~!" echoed over the rooftop garden, and she hastily plucked her sausage from her lunch and ate it. Papika was _not_ getting it again!

"I told you not to call me that," she said as Papika skidded to a stop in front of her arms thrown out wide, palms facing out, for whatever reason. Habit, probably, like her own reply.

"Yeah!" Papika chirped, head bobbing, and then her gaze alighted on Yayoi and she gasped. "Gasp! New person!"

The look on Yayoi's face as she realized that the red whirlwind was now aimed at _her_ was priceless, and Yayaka savored it. ' _I'll have to keep an eye on her and rescue her before Papika completely scares her off…'_ she mentally noted. Otherwise, she kept eating, even as Cocona sat down next to her and demurely unwrapped her own lunch.

Yayaka happened to glance at it, and immediately her face twisted into a disbelieving, disgusted expression. "Aw, crap, was it Salt's turn to make your lunch?"

We shall spare the viewers a picture of the catastrophe that was Cocona's lunch, and instead focus on her blank thousand-yard stare.

"Yes…"

Wordlessly, Yayaka reached out and tapped Papika on her shoulder. And good thing, too, because poor Yayoi looked like a spooked gazelle.

"Yeah?" Papika asked.

Yayaka jabbed her thumb Cocona's way. "Salt made her lunch."

"What!?" Papika yelped, stomping over to Cocona's end of the bench. "That man! Don't worry, Cocona, I've got this!"

That mission accomplished, Yayaka asked Yayoi, "So, what did you think of Typhoon Papika?"

Yayoi blinked, then took a deep breath and exhaled. "It was… an experience."

Yayaka chuckled. "That's a good way to describe her, yeah."

~o~

Yayaka was in hell. It was a hell of razor-edged rose petals and explosive dandelion seeds and high-velocity _peas,_ of all things, the size of her head. She couldn't simply swoop away from the spread, because the projectiles were _everywhere,_ the Witch they were fighting clearly of the "quantity over quality" mindset. It was all Yayaka could do to stay in the small gaps between the projectiles, and several tears in her costume and a throbbing pain in her left thigh were a testament to how _small_ and far between they were.

Abruptly, the entire labyrinth shook, and the Witch let out a screech of pain and redoubled its firepower - with even _more_ gaps than before. Yayaka grinned. Thank god Yayoi was here; her hammer was just _perfect_ for pushing through large swathes of the storm, and still doing some damage, besides. Without her damaging some of the Witch's shooting arms, she would've died in minutes.

Still, as a glance to her Soul Gem told her, they were only _surviving._ Yayaka was burning magic like water to stay alive; already her Soul Gem was worryingly cloudy, and whether it going black meant loss of magic like Kyubey claimed, or something worse as she suspected, it going black meant she was dead either way. Something that her brain had been increasingly insistent on as the fight wore on. Gritting her teeth, she shoved it down again and wracked her brain for a plan.

Another shake, another screech, and finally a lane opened up for Yayaka. She squinted down it and… yes! There was the small flower that they were guessing was the main Witch. Sadly, the projectile patterns were still too dense to get at with her swords. Well, that just meant she'd have to try her _new_ weapon.

' _I'm going in!'_ she telepathically announced. ' _Cover me!'_

Swinging around, she kicked off the wall and dove into the gap, praying that Yayoi would and could actually cover her. Whatever she had been expected, the massive _flame snake_ that slammed into the opposite side of the Witch's body and cut off the steady stream of projectiles in favor of defense was not it.

' _Gotcha!'_

A spear-tipped tonfa materialized in Yayaka's hand, and she aimed it at the flower. Her hands shook; so did the spear. She removed her other hand from her lines to steady the shot - and that was when things went wrong in the form of a new shooter sprouting out of the Witch's body.

' _Damn!'_ Yayaka bit out. Her mind sifted through a thousand possibilities in an instant and came to the sobering conclusion that there was no way to dodge without aborting her attack run.

So she wouldn't try.

The bud fired, but rather than a stream of rose petals or peas, the bud created a veritable _wall_ of explosive dandelion seeds. Yayaka gritted her teeth and slammed through, cradling her weapon behind her arms. Explosions tore at her, the heat scorching her costume and skin and the shock rolling through her, as bad as the many beatings she'd taken over the years but hitting her body all at once.

It was a burned, bleeding Yayaka that emerged from the explosion, one of her legs shredded and unresponsive. But her weapon was intact, and so was her Soul Gem, and so, with a roar of pain and rage and desperate need to _end this,_ she pulled the trigger and sent the explosive spear straight into the flower.

It struck true, and exploded, not quite drowning out the cry of pain from the Witch. As Yayaka began to fall, half-delirious from pain and withdrawing adrenaline, the labyrinth unravelled, leaving her falling not a great height to packed dirt, but a few feet to unforgiving concrete. Or would have, had Yayoi not slid under her to catch her.

"Yayaka!" she cried. Yayaka, for her part, was drawing on her magic to try and heal at least the worst of her injuries, the internal injuries and the worst burns and her damaged leg. But a curious lethargy had a hold of her. What was the point? Her gem was too dark, her magic too depleted to fix this. What was the point…

"Yayaka!" a familiar voice cried out.

' _The point…'_ Yayaka mentally growled, clawing back her sanity. ' _Is that I'm not going to leave Cocona alone ever again! Not ever!'_

Still, the fact remained that her gem was entirely too dark to heal much of the damage she'd taken. And then the Grief Seed they'd worked so hard for tapped against her Soul Gem.

"Yayoi…" she croaked.

"I already gave mine a tap," Yayoi answered the unsaid question. "Besides, you need this way more than I do." Another tap drew off more corruption.

"Seriously, what's going on here?!" Cocona demanded, looming over the two magical girls. "Why are you hurt, Yayaka?! Why do you have… are those Amorphous?"

A sniff. "Huh. It smells like dandelion wine and mushed peas…"

"Not the time, Papika."

"Lemme get back to you on that, Cocona," Yayaka grunted, levering herself into a sitting position. "Gotta fix myself up first."

Silence descended on the alley they were in, Yayaka slowly healing her injuries while Yayoi periodically tapped the Grief Seed to her Gem and Cocona and Papika watched with undisguised impatience. More than once, Cocona opened her mouth to say something, only for Papika to place a hand on her shoulder.

Finally, Yayaka patched up the last of her internal injuries, heaving a sigh of relief. She still was dotted with small cuts and burns, but those could heal normally. The Grief Seed was used up entirely, and her Soul Gem was still distressingly cloudy.

"Man, good thing you did some cleansing before I got started," Yayaka said, which as far as she got before she got a good look at Yayoi's Soul Gem. Right before her eyes, the last spot of color was swallowed up by black, and her eyes darted up to Yayoi's face. Her friend's expression was resigned, apologetic, and yet she wore a faint smile.

"Sorry, Yayaka…" she whispered.

And the corruption blackening her Soul Gem rose out of it and engulfed the alley. It vanished, replaced by a nausea-inducing twisted hallway, lined on either side by three-story shelves stocked end to end with gray, round balls. Gray balls of fuzz with arms, legs, and eyes trotted by, hardhats on their heads and vacant expressions on their faces.

"Ohhhh, I've got a bad feeling about this place…" Papika moaned.

WHAM!

Papika squeaked and jumped onto Cocona's shoulders, latching on. Yayaka didn't notice; her hand throbbed from punching one of the shelves, but it was a welcome distraction from the thoughts swirling through her head.

' _Should've known.'_

' _Why?'_

' _Should've guessed.'_

' _Witches…'_

' _Why?'_

' _Damn bunnycat!'_

' _Should've said something.'_

' _WHY?!'_

' _Gotta put her out of her misery…'_

Teeth grinding, she pulled her hand back, and turned to Cocona and Papika, whose eyes were wide with concern. "Henshin up, girls," she barked, as much bravado packed in as she could muster. "We've got a monster to kill. I'll fill you in on the way."

~o~

Sighing out through her nose, Yayaka kicked her heels against the side of the building she was sitting on, just staring wistfully up at the clouds. They didn't have a care in the world. Didn't have to deal with shit like wondering when she was going to turn into a ravenous, soul-eating monster.

Sighing again, she grabbed her Soul Gem and held it up to her eye. The bright green of the gem was clouded by the murky corruption it had accumulated, though thankfully still nowhere near black. At this rate, though, it was only a matter of time. Dr. Salt had been furiously working on some sort of a solution - despite being the loudest voice pushing him, even Cocona had had to nearly sit on him to get some _sleep -_ and Cocona and Papika and the twins were helping her look for Labyrinths, but Salt didn't even have a theoretical understanding of Soul Gems yet and the few Labyrinths they'd found had been Familiar-only.

A pity Kyubey hadn't shown up since the debacle with- Yayaka wrenched her mind away from that thought. A waste of magic it might have been, but murdering the bunnyrat would have felt good. She clenched her fist around her Gem and, leaning back, shoved it skyward.

"I'm not gonna let this defeat me. You hear me, you damn bunnyrat?" she shouted to no one in particular. "I'm going to survive this, just to throw it in your smug little face!"

And if that didn't work… well, there was no way she was leaving a Witch in town.

" _My, my. Such spirit."_

Immediately, Yayaka shot to her feet, head on a swivel and hand closed around her Soul Gem. "Who are you?" she barked. "And _where_ are you?" It wasn't Kyubey, that was for sure; the damn weasel sounded like a six-year-old boy, not an adult woman.

" _Whoa, okay, geez, calm down, girl!"_ the voice said, completely losing any semblance of adulthood in favor of standard teenage girl. " _Like, I get that the bunnycat made a bad first impression, but I'm not here to screw you over."_

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times…"

Silence greeted the saying, before the voice sighed. " _Ugh, fucking shadowy conspiracies… Alright, look, you want some proof that I'm not just gonna completely screw you over? Take out your Gem and keep an eye on it."_

Yayaka briefly entertained the idea of telling the voice to fuck off, but even odds that would give the voice an excuse to smite her or something. Slowly, she removed her hand from her pocket and opened the fist, showing her Soul Gem.

And then, right before her eyes, the corruption _vanished,_ leaving behind smooth, clean green.

Eyes wide, hand shaking, Yayaka took a step back and breathed, "What _are_ you?"

The smirk in the answer was audible. " _I'm the most important person that was, is, or ever will be. Now, how do you feel about making a deal…?"_

 **AN: What, you didn't really think I would leave Puella Magi Madoka Magica out of this, did you? Don't worry, it'll just be background detail... for now.**


	6. Forging 21

**Forging 2.1**

Genjuro eyed the gaggle in front of him. Hibiki, Chris, and Nanoha, all untransformed, flanked a ziptied Yayaka - and he just _knew_ he was going to have to explain to Shiro that his daughter had ended up in combat - but somehow they'd acquired two newcomers, one of whom was balefully staring at him from behind Yayaka. And then there was the takoyaki they were all munching on. Notably, there was no Staff of Solomon.

"I hope you brought enough for everybody," he sternly intoned.

The reactions were… interesting. Nanoha flinched and then began nervously laughing and rubbing the back of her head. Hibiki gasped, a look of distress on her face much akin to remembering you'd left the stove on. Chris nearly choked on an inhaled octopus ball. The redhaired newcomer looked stricken, as if she'd just created some great crime. Yayaka rolled her eyes. And the blue-haired girl just kept staring at him.

Genjuro let his expression soften and a smile return. "Ah, it's fine, it's fine, no need to look so worried. I see the mission was a success?"

"Yup," Chris replied, grabbing Yayaka from behind and shoving her forward. "One little relic-stealer, right here."

Nodding, Genjuro kneeled down to look Yayaka in the eye. "Would you tell us where the Staff of Solomon is?"

Yayaka said nothing. She just stared defiantly into Genjuro's eyes. He sighed, standing.

"Very well. Chris, if you would take her to the new holding cell?"

"Gladly," Chris replied, with a smile that showed just a few too many teeth. With her hands still on Yayaka's back and shoulders, it was simplicity itself to steer her out of the bridge.

"Oh, you're gonna love the new accommodations we put in!"

Genjuro sighed mentally as the door closed behind Chris. Hopefully he wouldn't have to keep Yayaka in that cell for very long, and he made a mental note to talk to Chris about how… _enthusiastic_ she was about arresting and incarcerating that girl.

But that was for later. For now…

"So!" he declared, his expression friendly again. "Who are your new friends?"

"This is Cocona-" Here Hibiki indicated the blue-haired girl. "And Papika-" Now the redhead. "And I'm pretty sure they were friends with Yayaka before… all this."

"Are," Cocona bit out, her stare not letting up on iota. "And just for the record, if you mistreat Yayaka in any way, or drag your feet releasing her, we're going to have— _Mmph!"_

What she might have said further was lost to time by means of octopus ball to the mouth, hand-delivered by Papika Express.

"Eat!" she commanded. "You get cranky when you don't eat."

Grumbling mutinously, Cocona chewed on the food.

"Don't worry, I don't have any intention of holding Miss Yayaka any longer than I have to," Genjuro replied, before smiling wider as an idea came to him. Reaching over, he tapped his screen a few times. "In fact, I've just rescheduled our interrogation of Yayaka from tomorrow morning to the afternoon."

Cocona's expression shifted to confused, and then softened after a moment of recognition. Papika, notably, just stayed at confused until Cocona shot her a _look._ Genjuro took it as a sign to continue, filing away the reaction for later. "In the meantime, we have some spare cabins for you to rest in-"

"Oh! Oh! I wanna see the submarine!" Papika cut in, waving her hand and jumping up and down. "Submarine, submarine, wanna see the submarine! Can I? Can I can I can I?"

"YOU!"

Everyone jumped and stood a little straighter as Yukishiro Honoka stomped onto the bridge, tense shoulders, rumpled clothes, and askew glasses attesting to much fruitless work on a steady supply of coffee. She immediately made a beeline for Nanoha, getting up close and looming over her.

"M-Me?" Nanoha stammered, pointing at herself.

"Yes, you!" Honoka declared. "Genjuro said you know arcane search algorithms, and I need arcane search algorithms like you wouldn't believe. You're coming with me!"

"Ah, er…"

Unsatisfied with that answer, Honoka grabbed Nanoha by the wrist and began to drag her away. The young girl shot Genjuro a pleading look and mouthed "Help me!" Genjuro, remembering the many times Ryoko had gotten into such a fugue and the one time he had tried to interfere, plastered on a sympathetic look but otherwise did nothing. It was a very betrayed Nanoha who vanished behind the door out of the bridge.

For a long moment, everyone just stared after her, and then Papika turned back to Genjuro, the very picture of sunny smiles. "So, submarine?"

Shaking his head, Genjuro chuckled ruefully. "Hibiki, would you mind giving them a proper tour?"

"Of course, shishou!" Hibiki replied, saluting.

~o~

Yayaka eyed her new home for what would hopefully be not very long. Standard institutional cot, sink, and toilet, the latter tucked away out of sight of the transparent material that formed one of the walls. A finger tap had already confirmed that it wasn't glass; it felt more like some sort of plastic.

"Alright, listen up!" the magical girl that had captured her, Chris, imperiously declared. "Three of the walls face the sea. The last-" And here she tapped the transparent one. "Well. We engineered it with _Hibiki_ in mind. Good luck breaking it before the pressure sensors tell us to flood it. Oh, and one more thing."

A tap of a button, and what appeared to be an automatic watertight door slammed home in front of the cell. Yayaka raised an eyebrow; definitely the most elaborate setup she'd seen, but, well, it wasn't _that_ far off from the old containment measures Asclepius had had gathering dust.

"So, yeah, I don't recommend trying to break out of there," Chris finished.

"Whatever," Yayaka sighed, slumping onto the cot.

A loud bang, and she nearly jumped out of her skin, looking up to find Chris with one fist pressed against the not-glass and a smoldering glare aimed her way.

"I don't know what it is you've got up your sleeve that makes you so damn calm," she veritably _snarled._ "But it's not going to work. We'll spot it, and stop it. So make things easier on yourself. _Talk._ And we can all go on our way."

Struck by a sudden sense of deja vu, Yayaka frowned. This whole spiel sounded… familiar. But where had she heard it? Where?

" _If you don't know why you're here, then why_ are _you here? Just walk away, Cocona, before I…"_

A smirk. "Oh?" Yayaka remarked. "And who are you trying to convince here? Me… or yourself?"

From the sudden flinch that produced, Yayaka figured she'd hit the bullseye. That moment of weakness, however, was short lived; Chris switched back to the scowl and stomped off, leaving Yayaka to her cell.

Leaning back again, she reached into her pocket and pressed the back of a small, spider-shaped metal object. Why that man liked spiders so much was just _one_ of the bizarre mysteries about him. Whatever. As long as the transmitter worked, Yayaka didn't much care _what_ it looked like.

' _Now to just sit back and wait. In this underwater submarine. That those goons are going to have to_ blow a hole in _to access.'_

A pit opened up in Yayaka's stomach. Her fists clenched, and for a long moment she seriously considered spilling the beans on the whole plan. There was a difference between causing a bit of a ruckus to open the door, and risking killing the entire crew of this submarine.

' _But it's only a risk,'_ she told herself. ' _These guys… they know what they're doing, right? They can handle one hole, right?'_ She nodded, her rationalizations crystallizing. ' _Yeah, if it's one compartment they'll be fine. It's all watertight. Remember what you're doing all this for.'_

Memories flashed through her, each one of Yayaka and Cocona and an ever-shifting cast of other friends sitting on the roof, laughing and eating and just talking. Her resolve firmed.

So why was that pit still sitting in her stomach?

~o~

"And this is the cafeteria," Hibiki declared, sweeping her hand over the room. "Though everyone calls it a 'mess' for some reason."

The cafeteria, or mess, or whatever it was consisted of a serving line, through which the kitchen could be seen, and several rows of government-stock bench tables. Otherwise, the room shared the warm but stark aesthetic of the rest of the submarine, with quite a bit of polished metal in evidence. At this hour, only a few people were actually present, and to a man (or woman) they all glanced up at the girls with the expressions of people on their last reserves of awakeness, before going back to their food.

"Anyway, this's the last of the rooms I'm allowed in, so why don't we-"

A rumbling growl interrupted Hibiki, and she glanced at Papika, who had the decency to look sheepish. Cocona, for her part, rolled her eyes and began walking to the food line. "Come on, you bottomless pit, we might as well top you up while we can."

For once, Papika wore a dubious expression at the thought of eating. "But Cocona, that's government food! It's all bland and icky!"

"It's not _that_ bad," Hibiki tried to reassure the girl as they all entered the line. "It's… not _great,_ but it's not _bad._ Decent maybe?"

"Hibiki, shut up please."

"Yes ma'am."

In the event, the food was _not_ some sort of unrecognizable slop - in fact, it was decent-looking rice, pickles, and katsu - and the trio were soon parked on one of the tables, Papika digging into her food. First tentatively, then with increasing eagerness.

"So, uh," Hibiki began. "What… happened with Yayaka. Obviously something changed with-"

"I don't want to talk about it," Cocona interrupted, her cool gaze brooking no argument.

Gulping, Hibiki mentally shifted gears. "Right. Sorry. Uh, how did you and Papika meet? You seem really close."

Cocona crossed her arms and pursed her lips, the very picture of indignation. "She pulled me out of my blissful, comfortable school life for these 'adventures' where I risked life and limb for no apparent reason!" Her expression softened into a wistful smile. "And I love her for it. Without her, I would have never seen all the wonders I have. I would never have met my parents." Her expression tightened. "I would have been kidnapped by crazed cultists for who knows what reasons." And back to wistful, with a bit of longing. "And I never would have gotten to know Papika."

"You really do love her, don't you?" Hibiki remarked.

Cocona blushed, looking down. "I-I do. I really do. When I'm with her, it's… it's like I'm _energized._ I do things I'd have never done on my own and I enjoy it and… I just feel _complete."_

"Aww…" Papika cooed, draping herself over Cocona's shoulders with one arm and still eating with the other. "I love you too, Cocona."

"And what about you, Hibiki?" Cocona wondered. "Do you have… someone like that in your life?"

"Well, uh…" Hibiki trailed off, scratching her cheek. "Well, there's my best friend and roommate Miku. But we're not-!" The aborted attempt to watch the shooting stars together shot through her mind. "Um, I mean-" This was followed shortly by a memory of her crawling into Miku's bed to cuddle. With a great many more on its heels. "Er…" Growing steadily more red, she recalled the words she had said that one particular night. "I guess I do love her that way. She's… my sunflower."

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE- GURK!"

Hibiki looked up just in time to see a ginger-haired meteor come to a halt mid-air, barely a foot from her face, her dive arrested by a hand gripping her collar.

"Behave," Cocona admonished as she hauled Papika back and deposited her back on one of the benches.

"Sorry, but it's just so- eeeee!"

"Aheheheheh…"

Silence descended, Papika tearing back into her food, Hibiki too embarrassed to say anything, and Cocona content to be quiet. Lost in their own little worlds, they didn't notice Nanoha entering the mess until she flopped chin-first onto the table next Hibiki.

Everyone blinked. "Are you alright, ah, Nanoha, was it?" Cocona asked, concerned.

"I'm fiiiine. Miss Yukishiro was just picking my brain."

Cocona frowned. "That would be the person who dragged you off earlier?"

"Yeah, she's the new science person," Nanoha answered. "Was helping her optimize her search algorithms."

"Gesundheit," Papika remarked.

Everyone ignored that. "And no luck with finding the Staff?" Hibiki queried.

"Nope. Though Miss Yukishiro said she had a breakthrough…"

Resigned sighs passed around the table, everyone present familiar enough with scientists chasing a new theory to know what _that_ meant.

Stomping echoed in from the hall outside, gaining everyone's attention. Even Nanoha's. She looked up just in time to see Chris stomp in in high dudgeon, make a beeline for their table, and then dramatically flop into her seat.

"God! I want to _strangle_ that brat!" she snapped.

"Please don't," Cocona deadpanned.

Gritting her teeth, Chris visibly reigned herself in. "Sorry. I just… how can she be taking this so _calmly?_ We beat her, we captured her, whatever plan she had is in ruins. All we need to end this is the Staff!" Groaning, she pressed a hand to her forehead. "And yet, she just sits there. Calmly. Not even _trying_ to escape!"

At that last, Cocona and Papika both tensed up. "So, uh, how _did_ you guys capture Yayaka?" Papika asked, _very_ nonchalantly.

Beside her, Cocona cradled her face in one hand.

"Well, she danced around for a while, got a few hits in, and I was just about to turn things around when Nanoha here shot her through a storefront," Chris replied.

"And then she just gave up," Nanoha finished, tapping her chin. "Which was kinda fast, now that I think about it."

"Well, I mean, we _were_ both about two seconds from _really_ laying into her."

"No," Cocona cut in, frowning in thought. "I know Yayaka; even then she wouldn't just _give up._ She wanted to get captured."

That dispiriting conclusion hung in the air for a solid minute before Papika asked the obvious question: "Okay, but why though?"

"I have no idea," Cocona admitted.

THUNK!

~o~

"Come on, come on…" Honoka breathed to herself. Her eyes and shoulders and wrists all burned, but still she stared at her screen, hand on her mouse, as her test program completed its simulation. This was the fifth time she had run this particular algorithm, and she was _sure_ she'd cleaned up the code properly - but then again, she'd thought that each of those previous four times.

At least the arcane search algorithm hadn't coughed up any problems. _That_ was an exceptionally elegant piece of mathematical work and she _really_ wanted to know who had managed to teach it to a ten-year-old girl.

The progress bar halted that last sliver before completion. For a few agonizing seconds, it remained halted, and then it reached the end.

"Thank goodness…" Honoka breathed, taking a sip from the coffee mug in her left hand. Cold. Yuck. But the caffeine was welcome, so she swallowed the foul concoction anyway. Putting the mug down, she grabbed a USB storage drive and plugged it in, dropping in her completed search program. Once it was downloaded, she removed the drive and set off for the bridge so she could get the actual sensor information.

Now that she was away from her computer, she found herself swaying as she walked, her eyelids had suddenly tripled in weight, and she felt the familiar throb of a "trying- _way_ -too-hard" headache starting to build right behind her brows. She checked her watch, eyes widening.

"Eight?" she groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I'm going to need to pull an all-nighter to get enough data-"

Honoka came to a halt in the middle of the hall, drawing confused glances from a few crew members passing by. She ignored them, her attention instead drawn by the annoyed face of Nagisa that had popped up in her head.

"On second thought, I could probably just plug it in and let it gather data automatically overnight…" she amended, resuming her trek to the bridge.

The door slid open automatically when she reached it, and Honoka opened her mouth and said, "Commander, I have-"

That was as far as she got before Nanoha, Chris, Hibiki, Cocona, and Papika all barreled past her. "Commander, we've got a problem!" Chris declared, grabbing Cocona and pushing her forward. "Cocona, tell him."

"Commander, I know Yayaka," the magical girl explained, expression grim. "From what Chris and Nanoha have told me, she gave up way too easily; the Yayaka I know would sooner gnaw off an arm before admitting defeat. I think her surrender was a ploy of some kind."

Raising an eyebrow, Honoka threaded around the crowd of magical girls and headed over to her bridge station.

"Well, what kind of ploy?" Genjuro of course asked.

Plugging in the USB drive, Honoka pulled up her program and began connecting all the sensor feeds, listening with half an ear as the conversation continued.

"Well, we're not sure…" Cocona sheepishly admitted.

"She probably needs something from you guys and has a tracker or something that'll bring whoever she's working with here," Papika stated. There was a long pause. "What? Where did you think she got the mind-control thingy?"

There was another long pause.

"Anyway," Genjuro coughed. "This simply reinforces our need to get answers. However, that can wait until tomorrow morning. I know all of you have fought today, and it would be best to approach this with a fresh mind."

"We're not-" Nanoha began, only to be interrupted by a long pause that had to be a jaw-cracking yawn. "We're not tired…"

"And what if Papika's right?" Chris demanded. "What if she _is_ acting as a beacon for more enemies, and they attack us in our sleep?"

"Then we'll just have to wake up and fight them off!" Hibiki declared, followed by an exclamation of "Ow!"

"Dummy…"

Still, no further objections were raised, and Honoka returned her full attention to her work, letting a choice curse word slip when she noted that she'd been sufficiently distracted to mess up several lines of code.

She'd just finished cleaning up when she felt Genjuro's presence over her shoulder. "How's it going?" he asked.

"I've finished the program; ideally, I just need to attach it to the sensor feeds and I'll have enough data to run a proper analysis tomorrow morning."

Honoka could practically _feel_ one of Genjuro's eyebrows rise. "No all-nighter?"

Well, from the surprised tone in his voice, Mental Nagisa was right. Again. She tried not to let annoyance at that fact creep into her reply.

"No. I've learned that all-nighters are a… bad idea."

Genjuro chuckled. "Good. That's a lesson I had to relearn. Enjoy your rest." And with that, he walked off.

Honoka, for her part, turned back to her station and scanned over everything again. No errors she could see, no problems in the sensor feeds… she clicked her mouse and the data began to flow in. No problems on that end, either, though there was something odd about the data itself…

Sighing, Honoka leaned back and rubbed her eyes. "Tomorrow," she promised herself, standing. "It'll make sense tomorrow once I've gotten some sleep."


End file.
